Max Mosley about-turn clears path for Jean Todt

MAX MOSLEY is preparing the ground for former Ferrari team principal Jean Todt to replace him as president of motor sport’s governing body, the FIA. That, at least, is the belief of the F1 teams as to why he made his dramatic about-turn a day after agreeing a peace deal with them.
On Wednesday the FIA world council had voted in favour of a resolution that included Mosley not seeking re-election and not pushing through earlier proposed F1 regulations against the teams’ wishes. The “dissident” eight teams duly called off their breakaway championship and indicated they would now commit to F1 until the end of 2012. It seemed that Mosley had finally run out of ammunition against a body of teams that had remained unified. When even his long-time ally, Bernie Ecclestone, switched his support from Mosley to the teams it appeared the game was up.
The revelation a day later that Mosley was “considering his options” and intimating he might, after all, stand for re-election in October has left the teams nonplussed. “As far as we are concerned we have an agreement,” said one team. “We expect him to respect his side of it. If he doesn’t, then we’ll see what our options are, but at this stage we are treating what he has said as polemics. We have an agreement — to compete in F1 until the end of 2012.”
The “polemics” refers to the belief that Mosley is simply laying the ground for his succession plan, one that involves Todt, a man who would be an unpopular choice with the teams — but not as unpopular as Mosley himself.
Toyota’s John Howett, a leading light in the team association Fota, said on Wednesday: “From the teams’ point of view, we would like to see someone who actually is independent , perhaps independent from any of us currently or historically.” This was taken as a clear hint that Todt, as an ex-Ferrari man, would not find favour among them.
This quote angered Mosley and is believed to have been the trigger for his current position. He was angered further by quotes attributed to Fota chief and Ferrari president Luca di Montezemolo regarding Mosley’s role within the FIA between now and the end of his term in October and apparent references to Mosley as “a dictator”. In a leaked Thursday letter to Montezemolo, Mosley said: “If you wish the agreement we made to have any chance of survival you and Fota must immediately rectify your actions. You must correct the false statements which have been made and make no further such statements. You yourself must issue a suitable correction and apology.” No such apology was forthcoming. Mosley signed off with what, to the teams, was an ominous final paragraph: “Given your and Fota’s deliberate attempt to mislead the media, I now consider my options open. At least until October, I am president of the FIA with the full authority of that office. After that it is the FIA member clubs, not you or Fota, who will decide on the future leadership of the FIA.” Mosley followed that up with a letter to the member clubs of the FIA in which he said: “The question of FIA president is a matter exclusively for you, the member clubs of the FIA, and most definitely not for the vehicle manufacturers who make up Fota.”
One team insider said: “Mosley wants someone to continue his work. Someone that can be manipulated by him — and we all know who that is.”
Todt is working with the FIA as president of eSafetyAware, a non-profit organisation promoting the use of safety technologies in cars that is supported by the FIA.
Di Montezemolo recruited Todt to Ferrari in 1993, but the Frenchman resigned as CEO in March, and their parting is said to have been less than cordial.
Todt and Mosley have had a close working relationship ever since Todt was made Ferrari team principal. For instance, last year after revelations about Mosley’s private life in the News of the World, there was a campaign among the teams to take action at the Canadian Grand Prix in an attempt to force him to resign. The plan foundered on one team refusing to go along with it — Ferrari, represented by Todt.
So F1 continues in a crisis limbo, fuelled by its Byzantine politics, just a few days after apparently securing its future. It took Mosley just over 24 hours to turn around what looked to be a humiliating political defeat into something that might not yet be termed a victory, but which makes it very clear the war is far from over. There are as yet no winners. But F1 is surely the loser.
- Mark Hughes writes for Autosport magazine